University of Ottawa: Serving Up Local, Year Round
The University of Ottawa (uOttawa) partnered with The Growcer to serve hyper-local produce on campus. Students and staff can now see exactly where their produce is coming from – a hydroponic farm right outside their dining hall on campus.
The University uses a Growcer unit to grow greens for its dining hall and catering services. During a normal school year, uOttawa is able to easily consume 100 percent of what’s produced from a Growcer unit with 8,000 students passing through its dining services each day.
Project at a Glance
Installed in summer 2018 and located in Ottawa, Ontario.
Project goal: Build resiliency into the dining hall’s operations and add a tangible sign of the University’s sustainability commitment.
Distribution model: The school’s food services grows Monte Carlo romaine for its dining hall and catering services.
Impact: Food services on campus have a stable, reliable source of fresh greens and the University increases its sustainability initiatives on campus.
Operator: The farm is operated by the University’s food services.
Challenge
The University of Ottawa and their food service provider Chartwells Canada were actively looking for ways to support their sustainability goals.
Every day, food services feed over 10,000 people. Feeding this volume of people requires that food services import produce during a majority of the school year when local food is normally out of season. Importing food leaves food services vulnerable to price fluctuations and produce recalls.
Maryann Moffitt, dietitian and food liaison officer at the University of Ottawa, says there’s been lots of interest in community and school gardens, but it’s not the best fit because the growing season happens when nobody is at school. The challenge was, what does the school do during the winter months?
On the other side of campus, the idea for The Growcer was brewing among students of Enactus uOttawa.
“So when [Growcer] came with this idea, I saw the value of having local greens grown on campus but when we need it, which is December, January, February, so I was very excited about that idea,” Moffitt says.
“I saw the value of having local greens grown on campus but when we need it, which is December, January, February, so I was very excited about that idea.”
Solution
A Growcer system is a plug-and-play hydroponic growing system that allows people to grow greens year-round, reduce food spoilage rates, and promote local food production. For universities, it provides a sustainable supply for food services steps away from the dining hall. At uOttawa, produce is delivered by hand.
Adding a Growcer farm on campus was more than adding a supply of local greens for the dining hall, but also a way for the school to support a growing student business created on campus.
“It’s like a crown jewel of food services sustainability initiatives,” Moffitt says.
“A lot of the stuff we do you just can’t see. Nobody knows we sell our cooking oil for biofuels. You can’t see that, it’s all behind the scenes, but The Growcer you can see it. We put windows in our units, so you can see the lettuce growing through the window. It’s been a very tangible sign of our commitment.”
Since launching, students and staff alike are able to eat crisp greens picked that day, located steps away from the dining hall! The entire project also operates on a cost-neutral basis: produce grown in uOttawa’s Growcer system costs exactly the same as the wholesale prices of produce.
Moffitt says adding a unit on campus was more than adding a supply of local greens for the dining hall.
“It’s also supporting The Growcer team, and giving them another location and place to learn . . . We were happy to let them experiment with us and it fulfills our mandate of supporting our students and supporting research,” Moffitt shares.
The University of Ottawa is only the first step, Chartwells Canada partnered with The Growcer to deploy its smart farming solution on post-secondary campuses nationally. Chartwells also pledged to donate 10% of all annual crops to tackle local food insecurity.
“Where a Growcer system is in place, the students and faculty at the college or university will benefit from having fresh, local, sustainable, and healthy produce grown only steps away from their food halls and dining areas, regardless of the weather.”
Results
Local, fresh and nutritious produce is available year-round.
uOttawa gains stability and control over its food supply, protecting itself against price shocks or produce recalls.
uOttawa was one of the first institutions to support a rising student business created on their campus.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, uOttawa engaged with the local community and donated its surplus harvest to Shepherds of Good Hope, a local homeless service, throughout the summer.
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